At a glance
- FC Barcelona icon Lionel Messi is now the outright owner of Cornella.
- As he did often in his La Liga days, the Argentine has managed to humiliate Barca’s bitter rivals Espanyol without even donning Blaugrana.
- Cornella now has more followers on Instagram than the Pericos.
Cornella have immediately felt the “Messi effect” after FC Barcelona icon Lionel Messi announced ownership of the fifth tier outfit on Thursday.
Messi will 100% own the Catalan club out near the airport in Barcelona’s western reaches, and plans to oversee everything from the first-team squad to methodology, transfers, brand image and institutional growth.
As explained by Mundo Deportivo, however, the club founded in 1951 has had immediate success on Messi’s watch.
Cornella are now bigger than Espanyol after Lionel Messi’s Purchase
At least on social media that is. In little to no time, Cornella have now surpassed Espanyol’s amount of followers on Instagram despite being five leagues lower.
They now boast 585,000 followers at the time of publishing. Compare this to Espanyol’s 550,000 following and you can argue that the green club has already outgrown the Pericos.
This is also more than other La Liga and Segunda Division institutions such as Getafe, Mallorca, Elche, Osasuna, Real Oviedo, Rayo Vallecano, Levante and Alaves.
Elsewhere on the platform, though, they still have a long way to go to catch FC Barcelona on 147 million Culers across the map.
In any event, this is once more an example of Messi humiliating Espanyol. Debuting against them in 2004, he scored 25 goals in 35 appearances in the derbi barcelonés complimented by 14 assists.
Cornella players want normality in Lionel Messi’s shadow
Though the impact Messi’s mere presence has isn’t his fault, the Cornella locker room is asking for “normality” amid a media frenzy according to Mundo Deportivo.
In their first match after the Messi announcement, a 1-1 draw to Funacio Esporta Grama, 15 members of the press covered the proceedings as opposed to the usual three. Head coach Ignasi Senabre is trying to restore calm, though.
“It comes naturally. The best player in history buys the club and that is happiness and excitement for everyone because he’s an idol,” Senabre said. “The acquisition is going to be a very positive thing for the team … [But] we have our minds on the competition”.
As things stand, Cornella sit in third place in the Tercera RFEF Group V.
